Identity orientations of Latino print media in Spain: the reinforcement of Latino popular culture
Communication & Society 36(3) : 35-51 (2023)
Abstract
The evolution of Latino print media in Spain has coincided with
the demographic increase of Latin American immigrants in the
country since the early 1990s. Starting with one publication in
1992, the market started to grow in 2003 and reached its peak in
2007 with the edition of more than 100 titles. The advertising
crisis of 2008 ended this trend, and the number of publications
began a continuous and permanent decline in the following years
despite a demographic recovery of Latin Americans in Spain after
2016. This research presents a quantitative analysis of the contents
of 1,500 news items from 14 Latino newspapers and magazines
that survived the 2008 advertising downfall. Six of these 14 media
outlets continue publishing in 2023. The objective of this study is
to show the connections between the contents of the analyzed
Latino print media and the cultural identities of their readers. The
results show that the prevalent themes related to culture, society
and politics represent the identities of their Latino readers. Latino
publications give visibility to Latinos as the protagonists of their
contents. In addition, the origin of the protagonists shows the
wide range of Latin American countries in correlation with the
diverse Latin American origins of the readers. We discuss the
implications of these findings within the volatile context of Latino
print media in Spain, the growing Latin American demographics,
and the formation of diverse Latino identities.